1. Field of the Invention
An example of where the invention will find application are track mounted shelving or cabinet units. Such shelving units are designed to provide compact storage by having the shelving units abut against one another with only one access opening being provided within which the shelves can be accessed. The shelves can be separated by moving them along the track to open up access at different points along the assembled shelves.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many instances, shelves are moved manually although it is common to provide a manual crank mechanism or electric drive means to move the shelves. This is particularly necessary when each shelving unit carries a heavy load.
The conventional means of providing a drive to each of the shelves is to connect the track mounted wheels to some form of drive means. This means that an axle extends across the base of each shelf to which the wheels are mounted. The shaft is then connected to some form of independent drive means which may be a manually rotated handle or an electric motor driven through a reduction gear box.
The need to mount a shaft within the base of the shelf unit results in added cost and complexity to the shelving unit. It would be desirable to have a drive mechanism that could be easily fitted to shelving units that were designed to be manually moved. Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide such an arrangement that meets this objective and overcomes the above mentioned problems.